The main aim of the workshop, to be held in Hamburg, Germany, September 18-19 2014, was to contribute to improved sea ice concentration and sea ice thickness data sets. Special emphasis will be on uncertainties. Specifically we would appreciate workshop participants to present results obtained by using and/or including the prototype products for sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT) of the ESA CCI Sea Ice ECV project (SICCI) into their analysis. These prototype products can be downloaded from http://icdc.zmaw.de/esa-cci_sea-ice-ecv0.html?&L=1 . Results from inter-comparison studies, independent validation and consistency checks, model experiments and assimilation are all welcome. The SICCI team will also present its own results with regard to data quality assessment.

The SICCI project is heading towards the end of the first project phase. A second project phase is planned in which the lessons learned during preparation and production of the prototype product will be incorporated into an enhanced version 2 of both SIC and SIT products. This product enhancement would be incomplete without your feedback. We would like to give you the chance to voice your concerns and experience from using and working with the SICCI project data.

Specifically we would like to know:

Can you use the SICCI products easily? If not: What are the difficulties? [Format, Description, Landmask]

Do the SICCI products match your requirements in terms of 1) quality, 2) spatial resolution, 3) temporal resolution, 4) length of time series, 5 realistic uncertainties? If not: How would the SICCI products need to be improved to match your requirements?

Is there key information missing in the Product User Guide?

What are the major results you obtained with using SICCI products? Did these allow you to improve your methods / results?

Which other SIC / SIT data sets are you or have you been using and why?